“Costco is a wonderful client for us,” DePianosays. “The types of magazines we publish match upgreatly with the Costco customer.”Based in Birmingham, Alabama, HoffmanMedia LLC publishes 11 print magazines in addi-tion to several special issues and seasonal hardbackbooks throughout the year. Other magazines in thecompany’s portfolio include The Cottage Journal,Southern Cast Iron, Taste of the South, Victoria,Tea Time, Classic Sewing, Louisiana Cookin’ andSouthern Lady. “Our magazines kind of cover thegamut,” DePiano says. “Except for Classic Sewing,they all have a food component and they all have adecorating and entertaining component.”In an era when people want things done fast,DePiano’s readers want to slow down. Whether it’ssewing a classic dress, laying out an elegant backyardtable setting for eight or baking a traditional pecanpie from scratch in a cast-iron pan, they takepride in doing it themselves. “They lovedoing things with their hands,” DePianosays. “Decorating, cooking, entertaining—they love the personal touch.”DePiano and her team look for proj-ects anyone can do. “We want to make iteasy and simple for our readers to havegreat success making anything [in] ourmagazines,” she says. “It’s attain-able, it’s believable and it’saffordable.” Keeping thingssimple has been a recipe forsuccess: Privately heldHoffman Media’s annualsales hover in the $30million range, and thecompany ranks amongthe top 25 publishingcompanies on thenewsstand.

A native of Hoover,
Alabama, DePiano
majored in accounting at
the University of Alabama at
Birmingham and became a CPA
with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst

& Young). She later retired to bea stay-at-home mother to twinsons—who are now 35 andwork for Hoffman Media. Sheenjoyed countedcross-stitch in her spare time, and discovered thereweren’t any needlework magazines on the market.She and three friends decided to start a needleworkmagazine called Just CrossStitch. They handed outsubscription cards for the new magazine at tradeshows, and crossed their fingers. “The first issue, wehad 3,500 subscribers paid upfront,” she says. “Thesecond issue we had 25,000 subscribers, and that’show our company got started in 1983.”The company, then called Symbol of ExcellencePublishers Inc., took off from there. It branched intolifestyle magazines, starting with Southern Lady.The company changed its name to Hoffman Mediain 1998, and sold Just CrossStitch in 2012 to focus onthe lifestyle, entertaining and cooking segments.

Hoffman Media has also embraced the immediacy, and expectations, of the internet age. Whereas
past generations may have thumbed through a gen-eral-interest magazine looking for coupons and
hoping to feel inspired, today’s Google-savvy readers know exactly what they are looking for, and they
expect to find it.

“Today, readers are targeting their inter-est,” DePiano says. “We’re in an era rightnow where content is king. People areselecting magazines that contain, inthe editorial, the topics that they arekeenly interested in, and they will payfor it.”Hoffman Media’s 115 employeesare divided into separate staffs focusedon a specific magazine, and eachpublication has its own website andsocial media pages where editorscan communicate with readers.The internet “has been anaddition to our business thathas not replaced our busi-ness,” DePiano says. “Ouraudience is very interac-tive, and that creates a lotof excitement for themagazines.”Her how-to advicefor startup entrepre-neurs is simple: Stickwith it. “Overnight suc-cesses take 10 years,” shesays. “Keep on working, workat the grass-roots level andnever give up.” C

Chris Penttila is a freelance
journalist based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Phyllis Hoffman DePiano’s publishingempire took 10 years to build

SUPPLIERPROFILE

COMPANY: Hoffman Media

FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN
OF THE BOARD: Phyllis
Hoffman DePiano

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES:

115

LOCATION: Birmingham,
Alabama

PHONE: 1-888-411-8995

WEBSITE:
hoffmanmedia.com

ITEMS AT COSTCO
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR:

Bake from Scratch, The
Cottage Journal and

Southern Cast Iron.

QUOTE ABOUT COSTCO:

“You can ;nd things [at Costco]
that you normally use, and you
can ;nd really special things
there. Their pre-made food
items are delightful and
delicious. And so when you are
entertaining a big crowd and
you really don’t have the
capacity to cook everything
from scratch, you can go there
and have a party right out of
their [deli] case that is totally
amazing. And so, I’m a big
Costco fan.”